Review: " DOOM: ETERNAL ( PC )
- Rustam
- Apr 19, 2020
- 14 min read
Thoughts / Review:
“ DOOM: ETERNAL ( PC ) “
( RIP & TEAR BABY! )
( A bit of Spoiler Warning as well )
Developer: ID Software
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Time played:
Difficulty: Nightmare
Doom Eternal is a first-person shooter video game developed by id Software and published by Bethesda Softworks. It is the fifth main game in the Doom series and a direct sequel to 2016's Doom, and was released on March 20, 2020, for Windows, PlayStation 4, Stadia and Xbox One, with a Nintendo Switch version planned for a release at a later date. The game received critical acclaim, with praise for its campaign, graphics, level design, soundtrack and combat mechanics.
DOOM ( 2016 ) was a freaking awesome game. It was a perfect reboot to a legendary series that is “ DOOM “ known for. And after the success of 2016, ID Software just had to make a sequel for it cause of that ending and you wondering? Is it a good game? Is it a better sequel for 2016? And let me tell you
IT FOR SURE IS. Here is my Thoughts / Review on “ DOOM: Eternal “:
Pros:
+ Gameplay:
So let’s talk about the main thing about this game and that is the “ Gameplay “ of it. Doom: Eternal IMO is the best FPS game that I have ever played in recent years. The weapons feel right to use, New Dash mechanic helps you to move constantly on a level CAUSE OH BOY! You need to move constantly in this game or else demons will kill you. You need to move constantly, jump on platforms as well as those poles on the walls.
“Doom: Eternal” Gameplay can almost feel like you are playing Quake instant cause I believe ID Software’s aim was to make it feel like Quake. Overall! The gameplay in Eternal is the best gameplay I have played in years and it's WAY TOO FAST compared to 2016 Doom.
+ Story:
A lot of people do not play “ DOOM “ for a story and I have seen many people knocking this game off for it focusing more on story than letting people to TEAR demons a lot and for me, that’s not the case. I LOVED the story of “ Doom: Eternal “ and LOVED how they explain what is happening around in more detail.
Doom Eternal story is a bit complicated as there are some mystery and reveals left for Doom 3 as well as some other question / answered from the Doom 2016 like how Hell started, Where did Hayden went after 2016 ending, Who are *they*, History behind the Doom Slayer himself and also some strange and mysterious stuff between the two *other* characters who are with you all the time BUT the main-story of this game can be explained in this short foam... It continues the story of DOOM 2016 where you somehow have a ship now ( Your Hub / More explained on what that is in the * Doom Slayer Headquarters * Section ) and the Earth has been invaded 60% with demons. The Hell Priests are the reason for it cause they serve as an angelic being known as the Khan Maykr who seeks to sacrifice mankind and YOU the Slayer has been given the task to kill those Hell Priests in order to reduce the invasion of hell on earth and save humanity. It may feel like some sort of redemption story but it’s more than that and the “ Codex* “ tells you that.
Basically I am not gonna go on details of the story cause its better you experience it yourself but Codex is like journals where most of the side-story, as well as main-story, is told in the text foam.
Some of my favorite moments on Doom: Eternal story are * SPOILER ALERT! *:
When you get Dr. Samuel Hayden back and then have to shoot a F**KING HOLE INTO MARS as well as SHOOT YOURSELF IN A BIG GUN TO GET INTO MARS so you can finally locate the final Hell Priest to take down.
Overall! You can call me a “ Story type of guy “ cause I am that and I loved the story of Eternal, Despite people not liking it.
+ New Features:
Id software did not just take what amazing Doom 2016 was and put it right here again BUT they actually retouched everything to make it as perfect as they can and here is me name some of them:
Weapons mods are back but this time you can upgrade the mod itself.
The new Dash / Wall climbing mechanic I talked about already is also really cool.
Now than rather shooting demons on random parts; you have weak spots that you can shoot with a specific weapon to make it easier to kill The Cacodemon, for instance, can be stunned if you manage to get a grenade in its mouth while you can target the Revenant's rocket launchers more directly to get rid of its primary attack.
Now you can upgrade your suit as well to make you more powerful,
Runes now do not require trials to be done to get them ( you just find them, get which one you want and take it ).
And there are definitely even more features that I am missing in this list. TLDR; there are a lot of new features added in here.
+ Doom Slayer’s Headquarters:
Another new thing in “ Doom: Eternal “ that I had to make a separate point is The hub: Your home away from Hell which gives the Doom Slayer more of a personality, which is where the new Hub comes in. The Fortress of Doom (clever naming there ) is a place where you go in between levels to freshen up, upgrade some of your skills, and take care of your collectibles. Doom Guy has his own bedroom on the hub where you can check out all the little toys you collect over time, but also explore Doom Guy himself. You'll find out he's still a simple man, but that he really likes the idea of a guitar made of flesh.
+ DOOMGUY:
I mean I do not need to explain this… ID Software has done some incredible job on making Doom-Slayer as one of the BADASS Characters there is in video-gaming IMO. I loved how a character that does not even talk at all ( Except that one stupid part where he did ) can feel so badass and unstoppable. He is IMO one of the badass characters in video-gaming as of now ( Master Chief, Max Payne, Vass are also amazing just like The Slayer himself ). I just loved the main protagonist in Doom 2016, Now I love him even more in Doom: Eternal.
+ Vega and Dr. Samuel Hayden are also BACK and this time they are even more explained on who they are, where they are helping you and have a lot more lore behind them than they had in Doom 2016… I LOVE THEM BOTH and Shout Out to the voice-acting behind them ( Darin De Paul as Hayden and Kevin Schon as VEGA ) and at near the end of the game revealed some shocking stuff which could make the next Doom Game VERY INTERESTING.
+ Boss Fights:
The boss fights in Doom: Eternal very really cool ( except one which I will talk in the *cons* section ) and I loved them… I felt like they were as good as the boss fights we had in 2016 Doom.
My favorite boss fights in Eternal were definitely the ( a bit of spoilers alert here ) “ Gladiator “ one cause of how fun it is to shoot him in the perfect time he allows you to and how cool his moves were. “ Khan Maykr “ boss fight was also cool where you need to weak the shield and then do a blood punch to damage it while also fighting Maykr Drones as well.
+ Also the “ Slayer Gates “ were some of the fun times I had in this game. I loved how difficult it was and how it feels awesome to kill so many demons spawning consistently for a long time. If you have beaten all of the Slayer Gates optional / bonus levels than you are a real MVP cause they were AMAZING and you get a cool reward by finishing all of the 6 of them.
+ FREAKING Excellent Soundtrack by Mick Gorden:
Mick Gorden KNOWS on how to make a perfect soundtrack for a videogame. He did it for Prey, he did it for Wolfenstein, He did it for Doom 2016 and now he does it once again for Eternal… This Heavy Metal soundtrack fits PERFECTLY to this game and if I had to choose my favorite one, I would say I loved ALL OF THEM. I think it’s worth you listen to it yourself if you are into a Heavy Metal type of songs and I do not see if this soundtrack wins my “ Best Soundtrack of 2020 “
NOW GO AND LISTEN TO IT CAUSE IT’S AWESOME.
+ Audio Design:
With an amazing soundtrack that is in “ Doom: Eternal “, the audio design as well is almost perfect in this game. When you fire a weapon, you actually feel the power of that specific weapon as you fires and hits. You actually hear people screaming for help when you walk on Demonic Earth. You as well hear the sound of demons around you and the environment sort of also makes a sound to let you know what Earth is suffering. Audio Design is great in “ Doom: Eternal “
+ Graphics / World:
Doom: Eternal is the best looking game that “ ID Software “ has made as of now. The destroyed earth is a breathtaking view to take. When later you return back to Mars is also amazing to look at and seeing how it changed since 2016 Doom Events happened. The ships where people are trying to fight off demons also is super detailed.
Overall, The Graphics, as well as the World that they have created, is A+ quality
+ Performance:
This game ran pretty well on the decent computer that I played on, Engine is Fantastically optimized to work smoothly on almost any computer with a decent but not too old graphics card /not low RAM. My game ran constantly on 60FPS on the High Setting with minor drops only coming on VERY VERY heavy fights which still did not affect my enjoyment with this game. I had absolutely no crashes while playing 👍.
+ The Toy Secrets is back this time but rather than you getting the toy of a doom guy with different colors like in Doom 2016, You get a toy of the Slayer himself as well as all the demons you encounter in Doom Eternal. Also, other secrets include the soundtrack from old games like Doom 3, Original doom, quake and more.
Cons:
* First two cons are my Main issues with this game and I will be doing a spoiler of them so BE WARN!, the rest of this issues except the first 2 are just me nitpicky on the game *
- F**K MARAUDERS:
Ok! These demons can go back to hell and never come back to earth cause MAN! I HATE THEM and now do not call me a “ Noob “ or “ Get better in shooting, you noob “ cause I believe Marauders to be good demons if some tweaking is done with them cause to this day I believe they are broken and they ruin the momentum this game has and let me explain why:
Ok! As the game described, if you get too close to them, they will use their shotgun and if you are away from them and they will use their long-range sword throw projectile on you and you can only hit them when their eye turns green. Now the problem here is that IT’S BROKEN… I remember clearly getting close to them and they use their projectile and be getting away and them using shotgun multiply times, also they move which seems in a speed of light so hitting them is a PAIN IN A ASS. One or two patches could fix that easily.
But I feel like rather than patching them, JUST REMOVE THEM ( expect first fight with them ) and the game will get a lot better than. In Doom: Eternal, you need to move constantly and shoot but when they spawn, the whole gameplay changes and turns into “ OH! I need to get that ammo and that pickup now “ and “ Ok, forget about other demons, let me wait until he attacks and turns green eyes and shoot him while also avoiding others “... I feel like they ruined my experience with this game A LOT during the end parts and I feel like they should not be in this game at all at the first place.
- End boss fight SUCKED:
Another issue I had with this game that ruined my experience with it was the end boss fight…. I LOVED the end boss fight in Doom 2016 cause it was great and Icon of sin while it feels like a good thing to end the game cause he is a very well known demon in Doom games… How it was done poorly and was a bit disappointment for me cause all the other boss fights were really good ( The Gladiator been AMAZING and the Khan Maykr Been Ok at best ) but the Icon of sin was a letdown and let me explain why I did not like it:
The Icon of Sin boss fight first lasted way too long for the gameplay is presented. Most of the gameplay during the boss felt like I was just being attacked from all sides and I couldn't really do anything about it. I had to put in a little damage on the Icon, then go back to healing before doing it all again. It felt super repetitive and not very exciting, although it was very tense for sure.
A big problem with the Icon of Sin fight for me was the overabundance of crucible refills. There's constantly demons spawning from every side and the best way to deal with them is using an instakill sword. That's not fun. Like I said that the King Manyr fight for me was OK at best… it was still way better than the Icon of Sin fight cause you had many Manyr Drones spawning each time you dealt damage with more coming every wave. This was really fun. You had a combat loop where the Khan Makyr would do more of her own attacks while you had to take care of her Makyr Drones. I liked this fight because those drones didn't respawn. You took care of them, dealt damage on the Khan Makyr, and then you hit her and started again with more difficulty. That was a fun gameplay loop.
The loop for the Icon of Sin was way less entertaining than King Makyr. Demons infinitely spawn, never giving you a break, and the best way to handle them is, again, with an instakill weapon that really requires little skill and has a tendency to not really work sometimes. That's just not good design.
Now how do you think it could have been done better. The first improvement would be to put him in the middle of the arena and make him smaller. That way, the player could have an eye on him from any point in the arena and know what he is about to do. Second would be to have waves of enemies that you have to fight that stop spawning eventually, or spawn less powerful demons, making a loop like Kill demons while avoiding Icon attacks -> Hurt Icon while avoiding Icon attacks -> Repeat. The fight they put in Doom Eternal makes the Icon feel less like an enemy and more like a glorified wall.
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Now to be nitpicky on this game which does not affect my score for this game AT ALL:
- Slayer voice part was unnecessary:
Doom Slayer is known for how badass he is and how without him saying a word expresses his angry on demons. Doom 2016 has a great example of it as when you enter the elevator at the start of the game and Dr. Samual Haydens says that this opening of the hell portal is for the betterment of mankind and the Doom guy looks at the died body… Without saying a single word you can see his anger of not even listening to him and punishing the screen from where Hayden talked. That showed you that he is angry and the only thing he cares about is killing demons so when in Doom: Eternal you suddenly heard the doom guy voice, I was like “ WHAT? BUT WHY? “.
Let me tell you why?:
1. I feel like that was unnecessary and it was rather as a side dialogue than been the main one and...
2. His voice choice was IMO a poor one cause I was expecting him to sound like you know a badass would sound like, having a deep voice but this may sound weird but he sounded like a normal dude would speak to a normal person. There was no epicness on the sound of the DoomGuy as well as it did not felt like a badass guy at all.
3. I felt like it was completely unnecessary and never needed to have it in the game. Silent doomguy is the best doomguy I could ask for.
- Some animations should have been back:
I felt like some of the animations from the 2016 Doom were just missing in order to not stop the flow of the gameplay which I can understand but was disappointed on it. Maybe it was due to the time-limit they had or due to the budget but some animations were missing. An example can be given like the card pickup… In 2016 Doom, you had to take those cards from dead humans body which made it feel like a bit realistic compare to here which is just a floating thing you walk to and no animation you get. Kind of was sad about not having that.
- Too Cartoonish compare to 2016:
Not only some animations were gone but “ ID Software “ aim for Doom: Eternal was to make it as arcade-y as the original one was which I do not hate it and am fine with it BUT I felt like the direction they wanted to take in Doom 2016 was better IMO than it been arcade-y and a bit Cartoonish and let me explain why I think like that:
Look! I do not hate it being cartoonish or arcade-y but some people preferred 2016 Doom over this one cause Doom 2016 felt a bit of a horror element in it as well as more realistic than…. Well feeling like you are playing a basically A “game” of a modern shooter in Doom: Eternal. Doom 2016 was realistic by the way the jump pads were placed as well as the horror you can see happening in mars by seeing blood, dead body’s, ammo/health can be picked up from the boxes which made it look and feel like real, demons eating humans and like I have mentioned already the realism of picking the cards from the dead body’s then here it went back to its root of the original doom and focus more on placing jump pads EVERYWHERE Ammo drops by chainsawing demons which were the same in 2016 BUT here it is full of bright colors, Ammo Boxes been gone and secret exploring of toys and OFCOURSE who can forget about 1UPs in Eternal? And it is not just extra lives but a floating orb that says 1UP and removing that horror element from it. I feel like explaining it is a bit hard and the only way you would understand this difference is if you have played both 2016 and 2020 Doom and see the difference by yourself. AGAIN I do not mind it been arcade-y and cartoonish but I prefer 2016 Doom realism and the Horror a bit more than Doom: Eternal adding a little retro flair to the modern shooter.
- Codex should have been voiced:
Another thing I did feel like was either cause of the budget limitation or time or even cause many people do not care about the lore/story in DOOM games where the Codex not been voiced and again! I am fine with reading all of the lore the game had to provide me but it would have been a lot easier to just press a “ Play “ button and let the game read the codex for you cause some of the codex lore was very very long and if you are reading them out loud than it can make your throat hurt.
- Maps can feel the same:
I do not know if it was just me but have you ever noticed that some of the levels in DOOM: Eternal felt like you have seen them before the cause for me it did. I felt like I was playing the same overlay of the level but with different textures a lot of them during this game. Maybe they indeed reused the map levels in this game with a different texture or maybe it was just me and I felt the same… I do not know but I had to mention this.
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